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Thursday, January 29, 2009

Ok, so Mini was in heat a few days ago. I love her funny screams when she wants to be bred.

It always gets us laughing up at the barn. She can be loud, and that's even funnier. Here is a quick sample of her amusing "words"

Don't mind the run away chickens. They live next door, and when a certain board in knocked loose they escape and wind up visiting the goats.

Naughty chickens!

M and I saw Oreo try and attempt to do the deed. M fondly calls it humping. She was cheering for him, and it was all I could do to not laugh. I mean really, it isn't every day that you have a 7 year old standing on a bucket, clapping her hands saying,

"Go boy, hump her, yay Oreo!"

"Mom, look he is sperming her!"

Aw geez.

So anyway, M is convinced that dear sweet Mini is pregnant. I won't believe it till next month. It's been a long road, you know?

We also got our first double yolker. So exciting!

I kind of guessed that was the deal when I saw the size of it.

Big!

I told the kids what I thought and asked the kids what their guesses were. M said when you are doing an experiment, that it's not called a guess, it's a, a, a.

I filled in her blank. Hypothesis?

Yes!

I was surprised that she could clarify that. Anyway, it made me smile.

So we cracked that bad boy open, and lo and behold:

So it was!

K wanted to be the eater,

and so we let him.

So here is some useless info that you may, or may not want to know. A double yolked egg is usually the cause of an immature reproductive track. Rarely it's genetic. You can figure that out by multiple double yolkers, I guess. They rarely can hatch. If so, they develop weakly, one or both usually die, or they are so crowded they can't hatch out of the egg.

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Well, not really disorganized, but sort of not as kid friendly/functional as I wanted. So we set out to revamp the living room and the old school room.

You see, I started out using the well drained mind as a beginning point for homeschooling. That nearly did my poor kid in. The next year, we just started to piece our own stuff. That was better, but still the poor kid hated it. Then we stopped everything, so my kid would find the joy in learning again. Deschooling came into play, and I thought they were bored, so I bought a literature rich curriculum. That went well for about two months, and then I became task master and them uninspired work sheet churning blobs.

Not so great.

So, then we really embraced unschooling and in the last 18 months have never been happier, have never seen my kids pick up more books,

question everything,

learn how to find info,

play games,

learn from everything they do

turn everything

into an experiment,

and the info passed on through casual conversations is far superior to anything that can be gleaned from a dry text, or any rote fact obtained through mind numbing work books, EVER.

So anyway, I digress, what was I saying?

Oh yes, making these rooms more inclusive.

See we had this game closet,

jammed packed with brilliant games, that did not get used enough, because they weren't in the kids line of sight,or easily accessible by them.

The kids really like games.

So to find a spot for them, I had to rearrange to filled book shelves to stick them there.

Then to make the school room less schooly

and more of a resource room, project area. I don't know what to do to get them back in there. They associate that area with boring things, and they never choose to wander in there. I have to figure out what to do to make it a place they would choose to enter.

Anyway, redistribute books, and clear some shelves for the games.

It was a start, and K did go in and have a few turns at some games

he has not played in eons!

So the shelves in the living room look more like this,

and this,

and in the old schoolroom more like this.

I started leaving little baskets about the house filled with different books which I will change around every week or so, you know, strewing.

She could not resist.

We had enough organizing and revamping for one day, so E made us a snack in his usual uniform.

The Mama enjoys Relaxed homeschooler podcast (unschooling), found on itunes, or here.

and dinner, and a beer.

youtube, books, brush teeth, sweet slumber for us all.-K

Frog Creek Pumpkin Brownies!

1- 15 oz can of Organic Pumpkin

1 cup veg oil

4 organic eggs

2 cups organic raw sugar

2 cups organic whole wheat flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

Chocolate chips.

Preheat oven to 350. Beat together eggs, oil, pumpkin, sugar, then stir in the rest of your ingredients. Pour into a greased 9x13 in. baking dish. Top with desired amount of Chocolate chips. (more is way better) Bake for ~ 30 min or till center springs back, or the usual inserted knife comes out clean. Enjoy!-K